THESE ARE A FEW OF MY LEAST FAVORITE THINGS and other San Francisco, CA Tourist Trap Tips

(1) Underwater World Aquarium at Pier 39, overpriced! (2) Most sit-down restaurants at Pier 39, overpriced! (except for the Eagle Cafe which has superb breakfasts and generous portions); at Pier 39, stick to Boudins Bakery; Blue Chip Cookies; and the other fast food joints.

Here's a pizza coupon (hopefully this website still has them). North Beach Pizza is the City's best:

http://www.mapwest.com/coupon/coup_44.html

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At Least Do This: Miscellaneous Facts:

- on the Golden Gate Bridge, each section of cable is made of precisely 27,572 individual wires that together stretch more than 80,000 miles

- there's an hourlong Blue and Gold Fleet Bay Cruise, leaves regularly from Pier 41 (next door to Pier 39) from 10 a.m. to late afternoon (time varies during the week.) $20 at ticket counter; $15 if booked online at www.blueandgoldfleet. com/bcruisesc.html.

- the Presidio is barely a century old - it was all sand dunes before that

- the Golden Gate was named by John C. Fremont

- "Tiburon" is Spanish for "shark"

- "Alcatraz" is Spanish for "pelican"

- Rudyard Kipling once described San Francisco as "a mad city inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people"

- the smell of Pier 39's resident population of 700 barking, jostling sea lions, combined with the cloying aroma of baking waffle cones, is a remarkably potent appetite suppressant

- the parking rates around Pier 39 are sky high, walk & take public transportation everyweher you go in the City

Souvenirs, anyone? Why not buy some 'tastes' of the City instead of that plastic back-scratcher.

Here are some items produced locally, from the greater Bay Area. You can buy them in any Safeway or large super market.

Spirits: Mumm's Champagne, Domaine Chandon Champagne, Rodney Strong Cabernet Sauvignon.

Beers: Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada, Gordon Biersch, Anderson Valley.

Miscellaneous: Ghirardelli Chocolate, Scharffen Berger Chocolate (pictured here), Jelly Belly Jelly Beans (made famous by former US President Ronald Reagan), Gallo Salami, Sonoma Jack Cheese, Boudin Sourdough Bread, Parisian Sourdough Bread.

Gourmet:
Joseph Schimdt Chocolate & Confections.

Recchiuti Confections, available at The Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market, on the Embarcadero at the foot of Green Street in San Francisco, each Saturday, rain or shine, from 8am to 1:30pm, and available at any Real Food Market (there's one on Fillmore in the Marina District).

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Alternative: See also my SF Shopping section for a great list of Bay Area Chocolate.